About 2

About

Process

URSA is an independent textiles label created by Elizabeth Gleeson, a native of the US, transplanted in Buenos Aires. Trained as a printmaker and ceramic artist in New York, her love affair with South America's brilliant textile culture, along with the discovery of a gold mine of local artisan talent, inspired her to form a socially-responsible, impact-driven company, collaborating with artisans in Argentina using traditional, lo-fi production techniques. URSA is the northerner - the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and the Little Bear (Ursa Minor); the most easily recognizable constellations and orientation points in the northern celestial hemisphere, which aren't visible over Argentine skies. URSA is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

URSA is dedicated to ethical production and sustainability and works closely with various women's cooperatives in some of Buenos Aires' most dense slums, and a collective of weavers from small towns scattered around the outskirts of the capital. We collaborate with a women's knitting group and a family weaving workshop in El Alto, Bolivia. We use only natural luxury fibers of the highest quality, sourced in situ in Patagonia and the Andes. Our finest merino comes from a small family ranch in the tiny town of Gan Gan, in an extremely isolated central plateau region of Patagonia, where indigenous women hand-wash and hand-spin it into the yarn used for many of our pieces. The result is URSA's unique collection of inspired knitwear, textiles, and accessories.